Remember your first cell phone? Perhaps it’s the highest time to give your child their own very first shinny smartphone. If you’ve been considering that, Christmas shopping season may be the best time to fulfill your plans. Since the new year is just round the corner and it equals new smartphone premieres, retailers discount the this year’s releases so that to make some room for the upcoming stock. If a new kid-friendly smartphone is on your holiday shopping list, you should know what model deserves investing your hard-earned money. Stay with us, and read our compilation of the best smartphones for kids currently available on the market.

Looking for a great Christmas gift for your child? How about a new smartphone? If you think it’s a good idea, you may want to take a look at our list of the five best smartphones for kids.

Smartphones are now considered a lifeline between parents and children. Except for being a reliable tool of communication, smartphones are also great portable gaming consoles and can be even useful educational tool. When we were children a cell phone was a bulky gadget reserved for businessmen. Now it’s pretty usual to see kids as young as kindergarten age carrying around smartphones of various brands and sizes. If you saw the word “smartphone” at the top of your child’s Christmas wish list and don’t know what model to choose to make your child’s eye brighten, we’re here to help you.

Finding a great smartphone for your kid isn’t surely an easy task. We need to look for a device that will be colorful so that to look appealing to the youngest, house decent specs, and carry an affordable price tag. Knowing that millions of parents nationwide may have a similar problem, we’ve researched the mobile market and pick five smartphones that seems to be the most child-friendly.

VTech KidiBuzz

First on our list is the VTech KidiBuzz. Designed with the youngest users in mind, the device is more a smart toy than a real smartphone. Regardless, its pretty limited functionality, the handset allows kids to send messages, drawings and stickers to parent-approved contacts via Wi-Fi network. Furthermore, it also offers a wide selection of kid-friendly websites and even enables them to download Android apps. All these makes the VTech KidiBuzz a perfect alternative for kids craving for a smartphone to play with and parents who think that their children aren’t ready for a real smartphone yet. Another advantage of the VTech KidiBuzz is its extremely low pricing of $99.99, and the fact that it doesn’t require any service plan. However, note that the phone targets kids at the age of 4 to 9.

Apple iPhone SE

If your kid is older than 9, then you may like consider giving him or her the Apple’s iPhone SE. Why it is a great phone for children? It has been equipped with a decent amount of parental controls, and it’s pretty cheap, naturally as for an iPhone. If you search the net, you will surely find tones of lucrative deals on the iPhone SE as its price dropped down significantly since its debut. In addition, the iPhone SE is also a proper option for families who use iOS, as the platform allows you to stay in touch with your nearest and dearest at no cost using iMessage/FaceTime.

Moto E4

If your family prefer Android over iOS, there’s a plethora of Android-based smartphones available for you – Android fans. But, if you don’t want to spend too much on a new phone for younger children which is pretty understandable, you should consider buying the Moto E4. Priced at $129.99 (or just $10.83 per month), the phone features great value for money. Note that there are many cheap Android phones, but not all offer such a great performance. Features like a 5-inch screen panel, removable battery, fingerprint scanner front-facing flash and splash resistance will surely delight your kids.

LG Stylo 3

For the same money you may also get the LG Stylo 3. Although the phablet isn’t the Galaxy Note, it provides its users with similar functionality for a fraction of the price. The integrated stylus is a handy tool which allows your small artists to create their very first pieces of art on a massive 5.7-inch display. Plus, the rear facing camera of Stylo 3 is a bit better that the one found in the Moto E4, and the device’s microSD card slot accepts cards up to 2TB, so you can be sure there will be always plenty of room for storing all the precious moment of your child’s life caught on photos.

ZTE Axon 7 Mini

If you can spend few bucks more, you may want to take a look at the Axon 7 Mini. Priced at $199, the phone packs a 5.2-inch 1080p display, Snapdragon 617 processor coupled with 3GB RAM, 32GB of built-in storage, Dolby Atmos audio, 16MP primary camera, 8MP front-facing snapper and a battery that will keep the whole thing ticking for 15 hours. Add a free case and free shipping to that, and you got a hard to resist deal.

Bottom line

Naturally, there are tons of other phones to choose from. We just tried to give you some kind of an advise and make the purchase decision a bit easier. With all phones from out list, you get the guarantee of solid performance, reliability, durability and affordable price sticker. All these features are particularly important when buying a phone for your children, as we all know how inattentive and reckless they sometimes are. The decision to buy a smartphone for a child is often made without much thinking, so sometimes baby steps are the best way to ease both parent and children through the process.